THE%20SINDH%20STORY

she offered Lila a rare necklace, if only she would let her spend one night with
Chanesar. In a fit of weakness for a rare piece of jewellery --- and hoping that
Chanesar in his cups would not be able to distinguish Kounroo from Lila --- Lila
agreed. But Chanesar found it out, rejected Lila for good, and married Kounroo.
The story highlights women’s weakness for gold --- and for gadgets of all kinds.
It also empha- sizes that the Lord --- whether he be temporal or spiritual --- can
not be trifled with.
Shah in his Sur Lila-Chanesar tells Lila: “What you thought was a necklace,
became a stone round your neck.” Lila says: “Oh God, one should never be too
smart; the smart ones come to grief.” Shah ends with this advice to Lila: “Oh Lila,
weep no more; get up and sweep your yard, and go and sacrifice your own self,
your father and your grandfather at the altar of your Lord.”
However, the Sindhi epic of the period par excellence is the Umar Marui. Marui
is a village belle, engaged to her kinsman, Khetsen. When the Soomra ruler Umar
of Umarkot or Amarkot comes to know of her beauty, he abducts her, confines
her in his fort, and invites her to marry him. Marui declines. She refuses to take
any rich foods or wear any finery. She would not even oil or comb her hair. She
is afraid her kinsfolk have given her up, thinking she may not like to give up the
palace for the sand-dunes of the Thar desert. However, she manages to send
word to her people. She then tells Umar she would like to go out for a stroll. That
makes Umar think she is relaxing and relenting in her rejection of him. She then
goes out and is rescued and taken home among joyous scenes.
Marui reminds us of Sita in her confinement in Lanka. Interestingly enough, both
Ravana and Umar, old villians, were gentlemen enough; they did not force their
will on their captive beauties.
Marui is very emphatic that she is a poor girl, in love with her desert land; that
she is already engaged and will not marry any other man --- for love or money or
both. Her love of her poor land and poor people almost makes us wish to go and
live in a blooming desert. Her pining for her desert-home has elicited some of the
most patriotic poetry in Sindhi literature.
Says Shah’s Marui: “I wish I had not been born; or if I were born, l wish I had
died there and then, rather than face this ignominy.... Oh Umar, don’t make a
laughing stock of me by making this poor girl wear those silks of yours. We are
poor but we don’t change our life-partners for gold. O Umar, when I die, send
my body to my land [watan], where it will then come back to life....”
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